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Bredevoort

town in the province of Gelderland, the Netherlands

Bredevoort is a small old city in the Netherlands, now part of the municipality of Aalten. From 1326, Bredevoort was actual part of Gelderland. Between 1326 and 1696 the municipality of Bredevoort repeatedly changed ownership. The former municipality of Bredevoort comprised the city, the castle Bredevoort, and the villages Aalten, Dinxperlo and Winterswijk. After centuries of war, its fortifications were demolished by its inhabitants. Since 1993, Bredevoort presents itself as Bredevoort boekenstad (Bredevoort book town), after the examples of Hay-on-Wye in Wales and Redu in Belgium. There are now more than twenty second-hand book shops in the town.